The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF) is an international non-profit research organization dedicated to providing scientific research, technical assistance and information to ensure conservation success in Galapagos.
The IUCN (World Conservation Union) and UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) set up the CDF in 1959 after years of effort by a group of Ecuadorian, European and North American conservation pioneers.
CDF carries out its mission in Ecuador and Galapagos thanks to the Government of Ecuador, which allows the CDF to carry out research and offer conservation advice to the Government through a unique partnership agreement. CDF is part of a network of local and national institutions that support the conservation of Galapagos. For almost 50 years, CDF has worked in partnership with the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS), the principal government authority in charge of conservation and natural resource issues in Galapagos, providing the scientific knowledge needed to preserve this living laboratory for the world.
web: http://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/about-us/cdf-cdrs
Lying 600 miles (970 km) of the coast of Ecuador, at the Equator line, the Galapagos Islands consist of 6 main islands 12 smaller islands and over 40 islets. When you visit the Islands you will quickly understand why Spanish pirates named them "The Enchanted Islands”.
The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF) is an international non-profit research organization dedicated to providing scientific research, technical assistance and information to ensure conservation success in Galapagos.
Giant Galapagos tortoises meander distant highlands, and prehistoric marine iguanas sun themselves on black lava rocks along the shore. Flightless cormorants and tiny penguins dart through the waters while graceful red-billed tropicbirds screech across the sky. In the company of a Galapagos naturalist guide, you set out to explore remarkable island ecosystems as you inch past lounging sea lions, scout for breaching whales offshore and pink flamingos in hidden lagoons. The volcanic Galapagos sits about 650 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. At first, they appear to be desolate. Yet, these rough and rocky islands are home to wonderfully strange and abundant wildlife. As Charles Darwin some 200 years before us, we marvel at the highly adapted creatures found nowhere else on earth.
European discovery of the Galápagos Islands occurred when Dominican Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, sailed to Peru to settle a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his lieutenants. De Berlanga's vessel drifted off course when the winds diminished, and his party reached the islands on March 10, 1535. According to a 1956 study by Thor Heyerdahl and Arne Skjølsvold, remains of potsherds and other artifacts from several sites on the islands suggest visitation by South American peoples prior to the arrival of the Spanish.